Here's the play I keep imagining in my head.  After establishing Tebow as a running back lining up in the traditional halfback spot and running a couple of tosses to the left, when they get inside the 15 yard line, Mark Sanchez fakes the toss to the left, rolls right, and finds a tight end wide open in the end zone where the defender bit to go after Tebow.

That's just one juicy possibility. I'm sure Tony Sparano has a zillion more, because the possibilities - if it's working - are endless.

But there's more beyond the game play.  Think about practices.  Tebow is the very type of quarterback who gives the Jets the most trouble.  In the regular season this year, they'll face Ben Roethlisberger, Russelll Wilson, and possibly Brad Smith in the 2 games against Buffalo.  Might Tebow be able to make a difference in those games because he can be a better imitation in practice of those quarterbacks than anyone the Jets have had before?

I know there are negatives, especially if the Jets dig themselves a hole by losing a couple of games early.  If anyone has a legit case to make for Tebow to start ahead of Sanchez (because the Jets are 1-3, or they're not scoring points, or Sanchez is having a terrible start to the year), then the Jets are in a spot.

But if Sanchez has a good season (which I think he will), and the Jets win some games (which, with the help of what looks like it will once again be a very good defense, I think they will), then the addition of Tim Tebow gives the Jets a dimension that other teams just won't know how to plan for.

And that will only make the Jets' 2012 season better.

*I know I've been awfully positive about the Jets, with very little evidence to lead me down that path. But please know that it won't take much for me to get an idea that they'll be bad. If any of that nonsense from the pre-season makes its way into the regular season, I'll acknowledge it.  Just, now, I can't say they're going to be a bad team when we have no idea what they'll look like in the regular season.  Thank goodness that happens today.

*I'll tell you the one thing that scares me from the pre-season that may end up being a big deal in the regular season - the Jets' inability to convert a couple of 3rd-and-1 and 4th-and-1 situations.  Now, that was all before they got rid of Wayne Hunter....but it wasn't just Hunter in those situations.  It was the line as a whole.  Let's keep a close eye on that as the season gets underway.

*I don't know that I'm going to make score predictions this year - I used to do those every so often in the Sunday Paper.  It sure is fun when I hit the nail on the head, but it just doesn't happen all that often.  Or ever.

*Now that I'm back to reading Peter King's 'Monday Morning Quarterback' for the first time in like a decade, I'm realizing this Sunday Paper I'm writing may subconsciously be a rip-off of Peter King.  But I don't think so.  I just think we're awfully, somewhat scarily, similar in our writing.  (Not our football reporting, seeing as how I'm not a football reporter...Just our writing.  Let's be clear there.)

*Two more commercials I'm enjoying now that I may end up getting tired of before the end of the NFL season (remember, unlike, say, Peter King, I like the blue-suited NFL guy):

-I like Geico's current ad campaign, where they say, "Folks who switch to Geico sure are happy...." and the other guy says, "How happy are they?", and the latest says, "Happier than Eddie Money running a travel agency."  That makes me laugh - I hope there are more during the NFL season.

-'Monday Night Football' looks like it has a good ad campaign this year too - I liked the one where Matthew Stafford is getting ready to accept 'Player of the Week' honors before Aaron Rodgers has a big Monday night game - "Don't forget about Monday night" or something is the tag line.

*Ouch.  The Mets are getting their first mention after I've reviewed two commercials.  It's a shame, too, because they entered Labor Day 8 games back of the Cardinals for a wild card spot, beginning a series with the Cardinals.  The very same Cardinals that a year ago overcame an 8-and-a-half game deficit entering September to go on to make the playoffs and win the World Series.  Then Andres Torres was called out for missing first base on a double in the 9th inning with the Mets trailing 5-4, and I gave up on them for the rest of the season.

*18-4 sure is a good-looking record.

*I think I may have tweeted this around the All Star break rather than wrote about it here, but forgive me if I'm repeating myself: For someone who has hated Chipper Jones for a long time, I'm having a very hard time doing so this year. He's been nothing but a class act in his final season.  But I don't know that the Mets had to give him a retirement gift. Or, what they should have done, maybe, is give him some kind of Shea Stadium souvenir - recognize his career, and what he did at a place that no longer exists.  I don't know. 

*I'd say the Orioles bounced back pretty nicely from their disappointing loss last Saturday.

*I officially can't take any more of Rich Eisen.  I de-subscribed from the podcast this week.  I would end up just getting aggravated listening to Eisen talk about Eisen and, if there was time, some NFL. He's insufferable.  (I think that's the term I want to use there.)  Anyway, one of the things I weighed was the fact that I haven't heard anything exclusive on the show - probably no great loss informationally.  I might start listening to my pal Peter King's weekly podcast this week...until I grow tired of him.

*In case you missed it (I forgot to post links the first day), I posted my NFL picks for the year this week - both for the regular season and the playoffs.

*Justin from Sports Crackle Pop! (who celebrated his 34th birthday Friday and spent his 33rd year reading 33 books...then writing about it) cleared up the "Tebow Knows" t-shirt I wrote about last week.  It's a play on "Bo Knows".  I don't know why that didn't register in my brain.  I think it's rather clever.

*I think I've told you all that I'm down in New York for the Jets' opener.  A friend of mine said to me that will be a really tough drive back if they lose. Yes.  That would be a lonely 3-plus hours.  But they won't lose, right?

*Right.  Jets 24, Bills 10. 

*Oh well. I guess I'm making picks this year.